The Hindu : Now, the chimp genome project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Now, the chimp genome project

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Jan. 20. Smitten by the success of the sequencing of the human genome, scientists, in an international collaborative research effort, have now taken up the ``Chimpanzee genome project'', to unravel, among other things, the mystery behind the ``humanness'' among the great apes.

This was disclosed by Ajit Varki, Director, Glycobiology Research and Training Centre, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), U.S.A., while delivering the 3rd Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) distinguished lecture, on ``Genetic differences between humans and great apes — just what is it that makes us human'' here on Monday.

Prof. Varki said though he was not among the scientists involved in the project, he looked forward to the results, expected in two to three years time. ``It will explain the biomedical differences between human beings and chimpanzees and help improve the latter's care and conservation in captivity''.

In the course of his current research on a family of sugars called the sialic acids and their role in biology, evolution and diseases, he stumbled on the fact that human beings lacked a particular kind of these sugars, present in great apes, ``our closest cousins''. It was too early to figure out the consequences of this ``missing sugar'', but it broadly indicated why human beings were susceptible to certain diseases such as malaria and the great apes — bonobo, chimpanzee, gorilla and orangutan were not.

All these great apes were closely related to human beings, millions of years ago. Protein structures in a two-dimensional ``gel electrophoresis'' image of the blood plasma of human and these apes look similar. Prof. Varki, who graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore, before proceeding to the U.S., has since the early 1980s, pioneered research in glycobiology.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Three naxals killed in encounter

Cong. seeks probe into Velugu implementation

Now, the chimp genome project

Earth caves in, 4 buried alive

Former Minister Alwardas passes away

A be-thorough Governor

High drama as TDP MLA `secures' relative's release

Monitoring cells constituted

Minister denies change in highway alignment

Union Minister promises all help to rural tech park